If we turn now to the spiritual life, we shall find that the same principle obtains. Length of membership, or service, in the Church does not assure exaltation. Indeed, there are many men in the Church who have belonged to it from childhood to a ripe old age, who may nevertheless receive a very meager compensation. Theirs has been a life of membership only. They have rendered little or no service; and such service as they have rendered has been of inferior quality and questionable spirit. In reward, they will receive whatsoever is right. On the other hand, men who have had the privilege of belonging to the Church in this life for only a short time may receive as large a reward as the others, or even a larger reward than theirs. For again, these members of few years, have in those few years rendered service of a quality far superior to that of those of long years of membership. In the spiritual life or in the temporal life it is true that one may hope to get in return only as much as one gives. It is a law of physics that action and reaction are equal and opposite. An adaptation of that law may be applied here. {248} When we enter into service, temporal or spiritual, our lord will give us whatsoever is right.

A question like this may now arise in your minds: How shall we know whether or not our service is sufficient and adequate? Another parable of the Lord's will help us find the answer to the question. "Which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him. Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow (believe) not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do Research project."

The application to the day's work.

In any position in life, there are certain duties which we are required to do. The cash-boy in the department store, the elevator boy, the clerk behind the counter, the stenographer in the manager's office, the bookkeeper, the what not, has each one a specified kind of work to do. But if each one does only that which he is required to do, no more, he is in a sense an unprofitable servant. He can lay claim to no special consideration, no special reward. But if one of them does more than merely what is required of him; if he comes early and stays late; if he plans and toils to make the business more attractive, more efficient; if he promotes business, then is he indeed a profitable servant. When we enter into {249} the employ of others, it is our duty to do faithfully all that is required of us; it is our privilege to give extra service, to make ourselves thoroughly useful and wholly efficient, to merit special consideration.

So is it also in the Church of Jesus Christ. There are many things we are required as members to do. It is our duty—and a duty full of pleasure it should be—to attend the regular services of the Church, to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to magnify one's calling in the priesthood, to give offerings cheerfully to help the poor, to pay tithing, and so forth. But if we do these things only, the duties required by virtue of membership, we do only the things commanded us to do. We may count ourselves unprofitable servants. To become profitable servants, we should look after the thousand and one other opportunities that lie about us. It is our privilege to perform extra service reenex.